Foamipedia Wiki:Manual of Style
Below are some guidelines to follow when creating articles. Ignoring the style policies below will result in your article being an ugly, slapped-together piece of crap, and while it might still be funny, somebody else will have to come along and clean it up to meet our really very low standards. That somebody will then harbor seething hatred against you, and seek to avenge themselves of their wasted time. Trust us, it's easier to just follow the Manual of Style. Naming articles There are some rules regarding how articles on Foamipedia should be named. *Article names should be in singular form, not plural. *The titles of articles about individual characters should be the name by which the character was most commonly known, with later names preferred to earlier names, and full names preferred to partial names or nicknames. Titles, such as military ranks or titles of nobility, should be included; in cases where more than one title was given to a character, the loftiest or most important should be used. **Exception: Any character who have official titles. And no you can't give him a title because you want to or he deserves it ***Exception to the Exception: If a character should really remain at his non-title. Like Firelord Zuko should redirect to Zuko.*Unless the name of the article contains (or is) a proper noun or titles, none of the words should be capitalized. Capitalization *Always capitalize Avatar, Master, Crown Prince, or any other title. *Do not capitalize anything else that would not ordinarily be capitalized in standard English. Headings Use the (heading) markup for headings, not the ' ('bold') markup. Example: : This is a heading which produces: :This is a heading If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article. *Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns or titles in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. *Avoid links within headings. *Avoid overuse of sub-headings. Usage and spelling Though the readers and editors of Foamipedia speak many varieties of English, we prefer standard American English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources. Violating standard English usage occasionally for comic effect is acceptable. Violating it constantly because you have no grasp of standard English usage? Not so much. If a word has two acceptable variants in American English, the one that is considered "more American" is to be used. Such example is the spelling of ''judgement as judgment. The only exception of this rule is the spelling of words ending in ''-ogue'': while dialog is an acceptable version of dialogue, the latter is preferred. If the title of an article differs in different varieties of English, the American title should be the article title, with alternate names being used as redirects. Tense All in-universe articles should be in past tense. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the articles on Foamipedia are presented as historical recordings that have been pieced together from scraps of misinformation left over from the Avatar era. As such, all details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more misinformation may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavor. Secondly, the Avatar universe takes place a long, long time ago, in the past (at least compared to the time the narrative is set in). Writing in-universe articles in past tense properly relates the timeline of that universe with our own perspective. Category:Foamipedia Category:Help